Screw You! Bad eBay Sellers that don’t listen: ViVi Diamond Club

February 23, 2011 |

It’s ranty time here – and this time it’s an eBay seller!

I purchased a few make up items (4 in total) from seller ViVi Diamond Club (user name: babykula_318).

I told them clearly, that I wanted each item sent separately and was happy to pay the shipping costs – why? Because anything that is over £18 attracts a customs fee which is usually tax plus “handling fees”.

I figured that paying shipping separately would be cheaper than paying a customs fee and inevitably having to wait days or weeks for them to clear the parcel. (Note: True value of all the items were declared, nothing dodgy going on here).

What happens? Two items arrive with no problems, separately, then another two seem lost in post limbo. After a long wait a card comes through the door – I have a fee to pay.

Sure enough it was the latter 2 items I ordered from the seller – I had ordered these on different days and dealt with them as separate transactions. I even waited for the “Your order has been dispatched” email for item 1 before ordering item 2nd (because the seller requires immediate payment) so that they couldn’t get mixed up.

Why had the seller, without asking me, stuck 2 products together thus taking the order total into the chargeable tax band?

Although…tax is not a problem. It’s the minor component. The killer is the “handling fees” which they DON’T provide a clear break down of on the card the slip through your door – it just says total £12.87.

The “customs clearance charge” according to the Royal Mail site is £8 – £8!!!

Which means the tax I actually paid was £4.87 and the remainder is the cost of sticking a card through my door, and the fee for someone to work out what tax to charge for my parcel, which I presume is someones paid job to do anyway. Bloody con.

Basically – be warned about this from any international seller. Even when you are careful people can still do whatever the hell you like – in the future I will stick to buying Asian cosmetics from eBayers I trust to listen and stores like adambeauty.com. And no the seller will not refund me, so – lesson learned.

P.S. I still don’t have the item…it is now at the mercy of Royal Mail after I very begrudgingly paid the fee. Majolica Majorca has never been this expensive!

Comments

I’ve always been able to get away with parcels marked as gifts under £36. So far, most eBay sellers have always been willing to do this for me; plus I don’t seem to ever buy more than that value anyway!

So they’ve took the money off you to send items separately but saved money by posting them together…cheeky so-and so’s!! I’ve never really had a problem with customs charges because I only ever order a small amount (probably because I AM weary of customs, and actually didn’t know the threshold was £18 – thanks for that!) BUT I have bought fake Benefit goods from a HK seller, which I was refunded in the end, but it taught me a valuable lesson to buy only from reputable sources. Plus I’ve learnt that good feedback isn’t always a good indicator, because sometimes the seller will set up several accounts to give good feedback to themselves, or in my case, it seems other people weren’t so good at recognising fake products because they were leaving positive feedback for the seller!

Did this seller give you a discount for sticking the two items together? They refunded me $1 for ordering 2 items from them, the usual discount on shipping for buying multiple items. I was charged full shipping at first for each item, and then an email came re the refund. I am in the US, as are they, so the items came, no problem. However, I am starting to sweat about the other items I’ve recently purchased from other eBayers which still have not come yet. This is my first time ordering from overseas eBay sellers so I am scared, very scared. One is from alphabeauty and I trust that they’ve done this enough times they won’t screw it up, but the other sellers….not so sure now. CRAP.

I really resent paying royal mail £8 . I would order so much more from the us,but it ends up very expensive. Fyi if your order amounts to over £150 you will get stung with an import duty too. Luckily i could never afford that much lol.

Annoys the hell out of me too – the handling fee (otehr day I paid £1.76 tax + £8.oo handling!!). I mean I can understand if a special courier adds a handling fee because they clear out the customs on your behalf, but the RM – it’s their freaking job! If they want to charge taxes on people, then bloody get on with your job. I don’t think the tax man adds a handling fee when they deduct the income tax! How can they get away with it? I swear one of these days I’ll start calling the ofcom or however regulates them. I’m sure there’s got to be something dodgy about it…

This guy is a complete tool. I sold him a 2nd hand item that was 100% genuine but did not come with an original “branded” dust cap and was not listed/described as being sold with one – he immediately started threatening me and sending me harassing emails.

He has now spoiled my PERFECT eBay feedback with nonsense about me selling him an item that was not as described. I should have read his feedback as he has similar complaints from past ebay dealings….

The awful thing is that I included LOADS of extra accessories in the sale that were not listed in the description, trying to be a “nice guy” – PLEASE DONT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH shakakono252